"There is one rule, above all others, for being a man. Whatever comes, face it on your feet."
― Robert Jordan, The Great Hunt.
Twenty second Yuga, Yaksa calendar (1623 C.E. Earth Date). Archipelago Four Yo'hanas west of Saubha.
They were heading to an ancient temple and fighting arena in the ruins of a secret jungle city that was built on the slope of an inactive volcano. The surface of the sea foamed white as the hover skiff carrying the Yaksa flew low over the waves. Rava'an looked over the jungle that covered the largest of the islands ahead. Behind them the partially sunken wreckage of the airship Saubha shone beneath the local sun with a golden glow.
They landed on the white sand bathed by an emerald sea. The party included the four Yaksa contestants, the clan elders and of course Anu'sha, who was carried by four servants in a litter.
Taking a jungle trail to reach the temple, they soon arrived at a clearing. There stood a limestone building that sparkled in the white light of the sun. More than a pyramid, it was a Stūpa, a semi-spherical building surrounded by a low-rise wall and rounded doors. Despite the heat outside, it was cool inside and in one of the rooms the water condensed, falling into a central basin. Rava'an noticed it wasn't built with the typical Yaksa architecture, made up of angular planes and adorned with engravings depicting ancient battles and hunts, but rather the rounded shapes and columns of a more organic and functional design, not in the least decorative. Elder Vaharaya told them to adjust their masks to another spectrum of light and in doing so, the warriors understood why. The walls were covered in murals! They told the tales of battles and customs of the original owners, the mysterious Devas.
The four hunters were instructed to strip off their armor and enter for a ritual bath.
Rava'an removed his armor, starting with the chest and shoulder plates, then the knee pads, and finally the loincloth. The others did the same and Rava'an saw that being the youngest, his skin did not have as many scars as the others. Gathok' had a semi-circle wound on his back, possibly a bite, as well as a plasma burn on his right calf.
Skan'dha had three circular scars that looked like the product of a kinetic projectile weapon, probably arrows lit with bitumen, painful, but nothing that a field medikit couldn't cure. When the giant Yaksa removed his loincloth, Rava'an noticed that Skan'dha had pierced metal rings on his ze'pha, similar to the rings decorating Anu'sha's friend Abhi'tha's jaws. He remembered that they belonged to the same clan and it was custom they'd pierce the ze'pha on males and the jaws in females. Rava'an wondered if those rings were painful when mating and guessed they were.
Ujesh' refused to have the servant help him remove his kavach. The Raksasa pushed him away with a grunt of displeasure, and then proceeded to undress on his own. The killer was covered in scars from head to toe; some of them were old wounds, inflicted by a sharp object. Rava'an recognized the recent mark left by the crystalline fangs of a Krmih and knew that Ujesh' lied when he claimed to have killed the beast without suffering any harm.
His skin also had a series of scarifications with tribal motifs, which gave it a darker hue. What was more peculiar, were the marks where the skin had been torn off in certain parts of his chest and back. It must have been painful, but then Rava'an remembered something he learned from reading about the kavach during his studies. The Deva armor interacted directly with the user's nervous system, therefore when putting on that armor one should have exposed nerves. The Raksasa's pain threshold must be extremely high to wear armor designed for a completely different species.
The Raksasa noticed Rava'an observing him and gave him a hateful look, challenging the young Yaksa to speak what's on his mind; Rava'an felt it was best not to anger the male further by voicing his opinions.
After the bath they were led to the armory next to the main arena. There was a huge collection of weapons hanging on display on the wall. Vajra cannons of different sizes and Chakra in a variety of designs. The wall offered everything from sharp smooth edged models to serrated ones with or without extendable blades. There were also scimitars, spears, axes, maces, whips, some bows, net and spear guns. On the other side, there was an orichalcum statue of the Black Warrior overlooking a Tzompantli filled with multiple skulls.
-"Choose your one weapon." Elder Vaharaya ordered, and the Elder pointed to the fully stacked wall. "Leave the rest of them be."
On these ritual hunts, they were only allowed to choose a weapon in addition to the standard wristblades. The Vajra cannon was forbidden on all trials
Gathok' stripped off his weapons, leaving only his Chakra hanging from his belt. Ujesh' kept a whip and Skan'dha a huge stone mace.
Rava'an was undecided, he didn't know what the challenge was and therefore which weapon would be the most suitable. "Perhaps the wisest thing is a weapon that can be used both at a distance and in close combat: Spear or scimitars."
At that moment, he saw his father approaching. He had not been present at the opening of the ceremony. The honorable Adi'natha, knowing that his son could die during the test, had come and offered him his spear, made with the barbed tail tip of a Scorpion man.
-"I'm proud of you, whatever the outcome would be, Son. Here, use this…" He said, lending him the weapon, passed generation after generation since the Great War. "It was my father's and his father's before him, and now it's yours."
-"Father, I will bring honor to the clan... or I will die trying. But I swear by Paya and the Black Warrior that this Raksasa will not lay his dirty paws on Anu'sha," Rava'an promised.
-"One last advice:" Adi'natha said to his younger son "Act, don't think. Focus on action as fast as you can, plan as the situation unfolds, adapt and get the job done."
Despite his lecture, Adi'natha trusted his son would pass the test. He had seen the recording of the Krmih hunt and knew Rava'an adapted quickly to challenges.
- o -
Inside the circular Coliseum the four contestants waited for the trial to begin. In the center of the arena, a large cage rose from the floor and when it opened, four rhino-like beasts came barreling out of it. A robed Yaksa brought some kind of metallic urn and placed it in front of the beasts. One of the huge animals sniffed the urn and then all of them reared in blind terror, trying to pull away from it. The thick chain around their necks rattled as the beasts tried to free themselves. A few seconds later, the urn exploded and a black cloud of motes revolved around for a moment, only to spread and invade the beast's nostrils. The animals started to buck and thrash, trying desperately to fight the parasites but it was useless and they eventually calmed and lay down. A few minutes later they started to bellow and cough.
Rava'an noticed heavy stone grates descending on all doors; they were locked inside with the animals. Something was about to happen, he and his fellow hunters readied their weapons.
One of the beasts writhed on the floor and bellowed in pain. Then, he saw how his abdomen swelled and moved. Something pushed the skin from the inside and the shrieks from the beast increased, blood and bile spurted from its mouth. The rest did the same after a few seconds.
-"What in the name of Paya is that?!" he asked.
The skin and ribs of the Rhyno-like beast finally gave way and a translucent bag of meat spilled on the floor between jets of arterial white phosphorescent blood. It looked like a pulsing monstrous lump inside a filmy fetal sack. They noticed the thing inside the sack had a bulbous, eyeless head ending in a pointed skull, a long tail ending in a stinger and a skinny body, with its ribs visible under the semi-translucent skin. Two sharp thorns protruded from its back. The thing gave a terrifying screech as it tore the fetal sack apart and emerged.
Skan'dha looked at Rava'an and then at Gathok', but it was Ujesh' who answered the giant's silent question:
- "Gallu" The killer said. Rava'an and Skan'dha frowned, and then the Raksasa added "What you call an aqrabuamelu."
-"Scorpion man..." Skan'dha acknowledged.
The other three animals also suffered the same fate as the first, albeit in different manners. One of the hideous creatures emerged from the mouth, a tiny arm tore its jaw and tongue, the rhino-like creature collapsed, drowning in his own blood. Another tore its way from the creature's ears, making the skull explode. The last one emerged from the beast's anus, between a combination of blood, guts and excrement, the animal was still alive when the little monster got rid of the fetal sack and quickly dispatched its host by ripping off a large piece of its neck.
Rava'an always imagined the mythical scorpion man as a huge creature, but the thing he had in front of him was no larger than one of the mastiffs Elder Vaharaya held in his throne room. Ujesh' seemed relaxed and held his whip firmly, but Rava'an could feel the tension bristle from the other two Yaksa.
The creature nearest to him growled and looked around. In that moment Rava'an noticed it was growing fast, it had doubled its size in the last minute. The stinger on its tail flexed and he could see it was nimble. The four creatures crawled around the circular arena and climbed on the walls, analyzing their surroundings. When they had grown into the average size of a Yaksa, all attacked at once.
One of the Gallu launched itself against the older Gathok', claws ready and its sphincter-like mouth opened, showing its long, sharp fangs in a menacing growl. The hunter evaded the attack with a move to the left; the Gallu narrowly failed to bite the hunter's throat and used the wall to propel himself forward again but was greeted with a swipe of the blades. The Gallu fell to the ground, hissing; his blood splattered the stone tiles.
Gathok' roared in triumph as he had spilled the first blood, but his celebration was short-lived, since the Gallu attacked again, pinning him to the ground and soon he found himself fighting desperately with the monster, who used his tail as a spear, trying to impale Gathok's face.
Meanwhile, another of the Gallu charged against Skan'dha who readied his massive stone mace to crush its head. The Gallu dodged it by climbing the arena wall. Skan'dha threw his mace against the wall and the creature dodged once more, then jumped back to the ground, hissing furiously. Skan'dha readied his blades.
Rava'an used his father's spear to repel the creature's first attack, wounding it in the side. Blood splattered on the ground but only for a few seconds as the wound healed quickly. "I'll have to kill it fast, it will be too dangerous to bleed it slowly until it dies," he thought. The Gallu opened its sphincter-like mouth and showed him its teeth by extending its mandibles just like the way the Krmih had done.
The creatures attacked relentlessly, without mercy or hesitation. They were natural born killers and were not held back by any self-preservation instinct. The Gallu fighting Skan'dha lost a hand to his blade, but he cared little and continued to fight as if nothing had happened, splashing the hunter with his putrid blood. Rava'an remembered his father had told him that thousands of these creatures destroyed the three sacred Yaksa cities in just one night.
Ujesh' on the contrary, was clearly in his element. He was more massive than the creature and his armor protected him from the attacks of its tail. He kept the Gallu at bay by cracking his whip and holding his blades in a defensive position. The Raksasa knew how to fight, Rava'an had to admit.
The Gallu launched himself at the gigantic Raksasa and pierced Ujesh' armor with his claws, pinning him to the ground. Before the Gallu could bite him, Ujesh' tossed it to the side and jumped up, cracked his whip again and caught the creature by coiling it with the length.
He looked at his surroundings and saw an opportunity. At the opposite end of the room, Gathok' was still fighting with his back on the ground with the Gallu over him. Finally, he was able to break free of the beast and sit up, but at that moment, Ujesh' grabbed the creature he had caught by the tail and threw it against Gathok', knocking him down. At first glance it would seem like a simple accident. Gathok' fell and the two creatures immediately subdued him. One of them pinned him to the ground while the other bit his head, ripping it off. Phosphorescent green blood stained the ground. For a brief moment, the creatures fought for the severed head until one of them swallowed it. Then they returned to the battle in search of more prey.
-"Now you will hunt in the lands of the Black Warrior, brother." Skan'dha recited the short prayer for the older Yaksa before continuing the fight. He had pinned the Gallu against a corner and used his mace to crush it. As he raised his mace, one of the Gallu leapt onto his back and bit him on the shoulder, the giant Yaksa growled in pain and grabbed the monster by the arm and threw him to the ground. His shoulder plate was torn off and useless so he discarded it.
While all this happened, Rava'an faced his own hardship. The Gallu who had beheaded Gathok' joined the one he was facing. Slowly, they tried to corner Rava'an by alternating their attacks, but he deflected them with the spear. Suddenly one of their heads fell to the ground, followed by the heavy thump of the body, as Gathok's disc cut the head cleanly off. Ujesh' had collected the weapon from the fallen hunter's corpse and had used it to kill one of the monsters. The other turned violently to face the Raksasa, and the muscular tail whipped Rava'an on his legs, making him fall to the ground.
Skan'dha fought against two of the abominations while Ujesh' battled the last one. With only three abominations remaining, Rava'an teamed with his clan mate temporarily. He needed to kill one of the creatures if he wanted to remain in the competition.
Ujesh' used the disc against the Gallu, but the creature evaded it. The weapon continued its path, directly towards Skan'dha. The large Yaksa was busy fending off the attacks of the remaining creatures and was almost hit. He was distracted for a moment when dodging the chakra and one of the creatures took the opportunity to attack him. It bit his weapon-hand and the mace fell to the ground. As he tried to shake the beast off him, the disk came back and sliced off the creature's head, with Skan'dha's hand still inside the teeth-filled mouth.
Two creatures remained and Skan'dha was badly hurt. Rava'an had noticed Ujesh' had been deliberately trying to kill them, making it look accidental, but apparently the overseers hadn't taken notice of the killer's actions. He stood side by side with his comrade and rival and readied himself. Ujesh, at the far end of the arena, prepared his next move.
- o –
Yo'hana: Ancient India measure unit, A Yojana is about 12–15 km.
Stūpa: A mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics. Most likely an engineer temple like those in LV-223.
Orichalcum: oreikhalkos (from oros, mountain and chalkos, copper), meaning literally "mountain copper". Been held to be a gold-copper alloy, a copper-tin or copper-zinc brass or metallic alloy no longer known
Tzompantli: A type of wooden rack or palisade documented in several Mesoamerican civilizations, which was used for the public display of human skulls, typically those of war captives or other sacrificial victims. From nahuatl Tzontli, meaning Skull and pantli, Wall. In this case is used as Trophy case.
Gallu: Akkadian, demons who hauled souls to the underworld. A Neomorph, called Aqrabuamelu by Rava'an's clan. These words are used to describe the same creatures as a sample of the linguistic differences between different clans.